I made kuru fasulye and you did not

I think this has been in the works for a while until now we’ve had to rely on Woods’ own slim volume in the Papers on Inner Asia series published out of Indiana all those years ago history.uchicago.edu/directory/jo...

this will be essential only the other day I was looking for firm information on one of Sultan Husayn Bayqara’s sons The Timurid Dynasty: A Handbook Volume I: Timur and His Family brill.com/edcollbook/t...

Albanian has an admirative (aka renarrative or mirative) mood used for reported, surprising, or ironic statements (uncommon for IE) Ti flet shqip. "You speak Albanian." Ti folke shqip! "You surprisingly! speak Albanian!" Admirative is different from the optative mood (used for wishes/curses)

settling into Perfect Days

I am shocked shocked to discover that there is gambling going on here

Why isn't this a major news story?

Odysseus had his crew lash him to the mast to keep him from doing an interview with Chotiner.

a film I thought I knew because it was a huge part of cultural discourse while I was growing up but that pre-knowing-ness deceived me because while I enjoyed the story though very much in two parts it did lack tightness in the plotting

I dreamed last night that I was participating in a Chagatay workshop at Indiana in the old departmental library possibly prompted by the fact that I recently read an announcement for a *third* Chagatay workshop taking place this summer (in Yerevan, t’other two in Prague and Münster)

Incredibly Famous Films from My Youth that I Didn’t Watch Then but Now I am: An Occasional Series No. 1

this gave me PTSD flashbacks it’s public school food for public schoolboys

Portrait, Haji Husain of Bukhara with cat, by Ustad Mansur (17th century artist of Mughal India).

Hamnet really seems to be dividing opinion, eh? I haven’t seen it yet but remember how disappointed I was with similarly lauded and garlanded films like the appalling Anora or the just plain daft Everything Everywhere All at Once

Winter coat for Kazakh man, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, 1850–1900 AD, fur, doe skin, cotton, silk. Exhibit in the Textile Museum, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. 📷Daderot

Me: I will never work in Astana do you know how cold it gets there in winter?!? Also me:

made pirozhki this evening

the thing I miss about the old internet which peaked for me in about 2006 was that everyone seemed so amateur and sincere now everyone’s a professional and on the make I feel like the takeover of LiveJournal (remember that?) was the canary in the goldmine

watching Cowboy Bebop for the first time and wow

I remember the celebration of this ⬇️ and had a tiny hope three years ago that things might get better. But no. The obsession with this term is still there across Western media.

the guy in this story is an absolute moron lmao rofl and all the rest

diversion into French crime fiction

this is a well-written and fascinating story

I will be thinking and feeling a lot about Drive My Car in the coming days

‘“Shakespeare had the mind of a grocer,” said Gunilla.’ Robertson Davies never stops serving aces

there’s a wonderful neighbourhood record shop in Tokyo I always visit called Pet Sounds which curates the most wonderful monthly and annual playlists and does the very ‘00s thing of burning them to CD and handing them out to customers with insert and everything www.petsounds.co.jp

Been having a New Year "Let's play all our vinyl and CDs again" moment. Not for ideological reasons (I dislike Spotify much less than a lot of you!) BUT that said I have rediscovered the joy of listening to whole albums, or even better, having a break after Side One. Today - Phoenix's Alphabetical.

in case you’re wondering the current temperature range in Astana these days is between -25 and -30°c and that’s without factoring in wind-chill

I recently watched A Very British Coup for the first time and now every time I read or hear an anti-Starmer story I’m like yup yup yup that sounds familiar

currently in the middle of an Ian Richardson minifest think I’ll watch Porterhouse Blue next

NEWSFLASH it’s cold in Astana

This Sunday, @ The Vine, Kentish Town, @tpfilmclub.bsky.social are putting on This Ain't No Disco! A concert film all-dayer. Fun for all... etc... www.tufnellparkfilmclub.com/forthcominga...

the number of students who compare with Robin Williams in terms of both looks and mannerisms makes me think I’m in the wrong business

Bill Watterson is my favorite cartoonist. I adored the relationship btw Calvin and Hobbes as a child. But as I've gotten older, these strips feel even more tender and insightful. My respect for him grew when I learned of his stance against merchandising. Such principles are almost unheard of today.

“some constipated pedant who will take an eternity to get anything done” Robertson Davies describing pretty much every academic who ever lived

I tried to make gyoza

🇰🇿 The promotion of Altai Oskemen to the Kazakhstan Premier League means they will be the easternmost club across UEFA's 55 countries in 2026. The other geographical extremes are: 🇳🇴 Tromsø (northernmost) 🇵🇹🏝️ Santa Clara (westernmost) 🇮🇱 Hapoel Be'er Sheva (southernmost)

there are a lot of serious problems in the world but the only one I feel vaguely competent enough to comment on is the Ashes farrago Down Under

tbh this was not far-off WaPo’s editorial line

wait, people are still on X?

I’ll never forget the time all those years when our A-level English teacher showed us a video of Adrian Mitchell reciting ‘To Whom it May Concern (Tell Me Lies About Vietnam)’ it blew my mind then and it still does now youtu.be/HgAQwu1v0eA?...

it’s a strange timeline indeed we live in when Spiked Online is the Voice of Media Reason viz a viz Venezuela

that aged well England still rubbish Australia boss

new year same old bs

man every bartender who drops Depeche Mode into their playlist is MVP in my book you could say they are my … youtu.be/cNd4eocq2K0?...

there are three of them, and Alleline

history is the study of the past in order to learn how to make future mistakes

all of this is horrifying but the US already did this in *1989* with Manuel Noriega

predictions for the Sydney test? both sides already seem checked out

I once saw Pete Doherty in concert with Babyshambles and it was well shambolic but this always warms my heart youtu.be/oLY0eUtVlXo?...